Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Back In The Day Posts

I'll be out of pocket this week, enjoying some cooler weather and a handful of mountains, so for your reading enjoyment, this week I'll be posting some of my archives from my very first year of blogging, circa 2005. Well, okay, not circa, exactly 2005. Anyways...

July 28, 2005

As you can probably tell from the pictures that I put on here, my little girl is getting much bigger. And if you've read my previous posts, you know that food has always been a hot button issue between us. I've been silent on this for awhile because we have been locked in a battle of wills. It seems that I am the only one who thinks that eating is a necessary part of the growing up process. The Tot, on the other hand, seems to be content drinking her bottles and eating bits of paper and carpet that she comes across. Apparently, to her this more than fulfills her nutritional requirements of the day. Needless to say, I do not share this opinion. This is an account of our encounters.

Noon. The Highchair.

"It's Lunch Time, Tot. Yea!!" I try to infuse my words with a permeating sense of excitement hoping that she will be tricked into thinking that she really is interested in lunch and today she might actually have a vegetable. She smiles at me from her seated position and begins to wave her arms frantically in circles. Sometimes they meet in a clap, but most often they do not. I'm not pushing her too hard in this, I figure she'll clap eventually and until then her "Snoopy Clap" is awfully cute. "Let's have some pureed vegetables and chicken! Yummy!! Open wide - ahhhhh". Once again, I am thwarted by someone that weighs less than backpack. It will never cease to amaze me how a child's jaws can be so strong. When The Tot decides to clamp those things down only the Lord Himself could open them. And probably not with a spoon. In fact, I have only succeed in doing this with my index finger and only then when I have caught her moving her mouth suspiciously indicating that she has put something on the floor in there. The last time it was an ant head that she had pulled off of some unsuspecting traveler trying to make it to the kitchen. I caught her seconds before it entered her mouth. But back to the story.

I try sneaking the spoon into the side of her mouth. No luck. I try opening my mouth and making sounds "ooohhhhoooooooohaaaahhhheeeeee" and try to get her to make them, too, in the hopes that I can sneak in the spoon. Nothing. And then she grins. And laughs. My own little Tot is mocking her Mother's inability to feed her. That's great.

Eventually I give up the baby food and toss some Cheerios on the tray as a last ditch effort to get her to eat something. She gobbles them up. The rat. I put some chunks of pears down. She mushes them between her fingers and throws a majority of them on the floor, but manages to eat some of them. Then we try lunchmeat. This is tricky. She has a hard time picking it up off the tray so I hand her a piece. Success is mine. I now try the ultimate test. Peas. I put some on the tray, now a total mess of mushy cheerios and dry lunchmeat mixed with pear juice, and I let her chase them around. All five are eaten swiftly.

I have triumphed!! Oh yes, I have tasted the sweetness of victory and it is a heady drink. We have now conquered four of the food groups!!! Fruits? Success. Protein? Victory. Grains? Triumph. And Vegetables? The item that I have battled since the days of Chicken and Broccoli?? Total Domination.

Now the only thing left to battle with is Dairy. But that my friends, is another day.